The futures were up across the board Monday, after a losing week that ended with a solid rally across all the major indexes and the transportation index on Friday. With earnings reporting all but over and the three-day Labor Day weekend right around the corner, trading volumes should continue to drop as investors get in final vacations and travel for the summer. Continued uncertainty over the economic impact of the Delta variant, the Federal Reserve’s taper timeline, China’s regulatory crackdown and COVID-19 booster shots, as well as the potential for further equity weakness, may continue to hover over a low-volume market.

Despite worries and the potential for a “taper tantrum” like we saw in 2013, the Federal Reserve is vowing to keep interest rates contained. Given the recent FOMC commentary it looks like the tapering of the $120 billion per month purchase of government and mortgage debt could indeed be in the works by the end of the year and purchases could be completed by the end of 2022.

With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for impending 5% to 10% correction across the board, which may have seen beginning last week, it makes sense for investors to continue building some cash reserves into any market strength while repositioning portfolios for the balance of 2021.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. Remember that no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. Consensus analyst target data is from Refinitiv.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, August 23, 2021.

ACV Auctions Inc. (NASDAQ: ACVA): Citigroup upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral but dropped the target price to $23 from $29. The consensus target is $36. The shares closed trading on Friday at $18.51.

Celsius Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CELH): Roth Capital resumed coverage with a Buy rating and an $85 price target. The consensus target is higher at $95.67. The final Friday trade was reported at $65.99.

Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR): Wells Fargo raised the shares to Overweight from Equal Weight and has a $45 price target. The consensus price objective is lower at $39.26. The stock closed Friday at $33.82.

Duolingo Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL): Goldman Sachs started coverage on the language learning app company with a Neutral rating and a $125 price target. Piper Sandler started coverage with an Overweight rating and a $156 price objective, while JMP Securities has a Market Outperform rating and a $160 price target. No consensus target has been set as the stock recently went public. So far, the shares have traded between $125.01 and $152.84. The last trade on Friday was reported at $126.03.

Dycom Industries Inc. (NYSE: DY): Wells Fargo raised the shares to Overweight from Equal Weight and has a $90 price target. The consensus target is $99.29. The last trade on Friday was reported at $69.50.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG): Wells Fargo raised the independent energy giant’s stock from Equal Weight to Overweight with an $88 price target. That compares with a $99.05 consensus target and Friday’s close at $64.47.

GXO Logistics Inc. (NYSE: GXO): Citigroup initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $95 target price. That compares with the $78.67 consensus target and Friday’s close at $77.05.

In8bio Inc. (NASDAQ: INAB): B. Riley Securities began coverage with a Buy rating and a $19 price target. The consensus target was not available as the company had a recent initial public offering. The shares have traded between $6.60 and $10.32 since then and closed Friday at $7.71.

JD.com Inc. (NASDAQ: JD): Zacks has selected this stock as its Bear of the Day. The analyst says that while there is nothing systemic about this Chinese e-commerce company to dislike, the geopolitical risk in the region is just too high. Shares last closed at $63.62, but they have traded as high as $108.29 in the past year.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: OAS): Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Underweight and has a $94 target price. That is much less than the $124.71 consensus figure. Friday’s closing print was $80.51.

Pearson PLC (NYSE: PSO): JPMorgan’s upgrade was to Overweight from Neutral. Over the past year, the stock has traded between $6.13 and $12.29, and it has a $13.40 consensus target. The last trade for Friday was recorded at $10.41.

Rallybio Corp. (NASDAQ: RLYB): Jefferies started coverage with a Buy rating and a $20 price target. No consensus price objective was available. Since the IPO, the shares have traded between $11.86 and $25.78. The closing share price on Friday was $12.69. Shares were up almost 8% in Monday’s premarket.
Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD): Goldman Sachs started the new-age brokerage firm with a Neutral rating and a $56 price target. Citigroup began coverage with a Buy rating and a $63 price target. The consensus target is posted much higher at $87.07. The last trade for Friday hit the tape at $42.64, after pulling back almost 5% on the day. The shares were higher in Monday’s premarket by almost 3%.

Sea Ltd. (NYSE: SE) Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $410 and kept the stock on the firm’s Conviction List of top stocks to buy. The consensus target is much lower at $314.55. The stock was last seen on Friday trading at $309.33, which was down close to 4% for the day.

Sealed Air Corp. (NYSE: SEE) William Blair started coverage with an Outperform rating. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $36.27 and $60.75. The consensus target price is $64.92, and Friday’s close was at $59.36 a share.

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: SEAS): Zacks is growing bullish on this theme park operator following a record quarter for earnings that proved its operational superiority amid this economic recovery. The firm has named it as the Bull of the Day. The shares most recently closed at $49.34 and have a consensus price target of $62.73.

Vine Energy Inc. (NYSE: VEI): Morgan Stanley lowered its Overweight rating to Equal Weight and cut the price target to $14 from $18. The posted consensus target is $19.33. The shares ended last week at $13.97.

WM Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MAPS): Piper Sandler initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and a $16 price target. This is another recent IPO, so no consensus target has been set. The stock has traded between $10.01 and $29.50 so far and closed on Friday at $13.26.

Zenvia Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENV): Itau BBA started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $24.80 price target. This was yet another recent IPO. The stock has traded between $9.49 and $14.14, and the last print on Friday was $13.84.

Jefferies is very positive on four business development stocks now for balanced growth and income investors. They pay outsized dividends and offer growth potential, so the total return possibilities look to be very solid.

Two hot tech stocks are among those expected to see dividend hikes this week. Also, now that its quiet period is over, see how the analysts landed on Robinhood stock.

Friday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Duke Energy, Macy’s, Mosaic, Nvidia, SAP, ServiceNow, Shopify and Workday. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Microsoft, Petco Health, Phillips 66 and more.

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